The devastated family of an elderly woman who died in Derry’s Altnagelvin Hospital are demanding to know why it took an ambulance almost an hour to attend their mother after she was knocked down.
The late Maura Porter,
Maura Porter was struck by a car outside her home in Carndonagh in Inishowen on 30 December last.
The 70-year-0ld, from Churchtown, was returning from her local church when she was struck by a car just before 6.00pm. She died in Altnagelvin Hospital shortly before midnight the same night.
Her son Brendan said following a “999” call they had to wait 50 minutes for an ambulance to come from Letterkenny General Hospital.
He said following 10 minutes of treatment at the scene, his fatally-injured mother was taken to the nearest hospital – Altnagelvin – taking the total time involved to an hour and a half.
Brendan said he believed his mother might have survived if she had reached a hospital within the “golden hour.”
He said: “Medical personnel will tell you that people have a much better chance of survival if they get to hospital within an hour.
“We had to wait for an ambulance to come from Letterkenny for at least 50 minutes. It took another ten minutes to prepare her for transportation to the nearest hospital in Derry which was a total transport time of an hour and a half to get mum to hospital.
“All that valuable time was wasted when surgeons could have been battling to save mum.
“We want to know why there is not adequate ambulance cover for a place the size of Inishowen.
“Inishowen is as large as many other counties in Ireland and yet an ambulance had to come all the way from Letterkenny.
“If the accident had happened in Malin Head, it would have taken one and a half hours from Letterkenny Hospital,” he said.
Brendan said he and his family were now determined to ensure that no other family have to go through what they are going through.
“As a family we have no question that mum would have had a chance of survival if an ambulance had have got her to hospital quicker.
“How can anyone justify 50 minute journey for an ambulance to reach a dying woman in this day and age.”
The HSE (Health Service Executive) has admitted there had been a delay in getting an ambulance to Mrs Porter after revealing the local Carndonagh ambulance had been on another call-out.
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